Tag Archives: Ferguson

Sugar Land, Texas — “The ‘convict lease system’ was a crime against humanity. It began right after enslaved people won their freedom. People have made millions of dollars off the free labor of our enslaved and imprisoned ancestors,” said Kofi Taharka, national chair of the National Black United Front. As she spoke, she was standing across the street from the old Imperial Sugar factory.

Ninety-five graves were unearthed in Sugar Land this summer as construction workers were building a school on property sold to the school district by the Texas prison system

A man in obvious mental distress instead of being assisted by police swore to protect and serve, was viciously attacked by the police and their k9 dog.

The unidentified man repeatedly saying “water, water, water” was subjected to a brutal display of force at the hands of Trenton police officers. It seems everyone else in the video realized the man was impaired in some way, everyone except the police who only seemed to see some type of dangerous animal.

What seems to be a common occurrence in police videos the officer was heard saying “stop resisting, stop resisting” as though this were his excuse to commit mayhem on this deranged man’s person.

And that’s what they did. The officer allowed his k9 dog partner to attack and bite the man even though he was in mental distress. Even while the k9 dog is biting him the victim still only said “water, water, water”.

Who in his right mind wouldn’t recognize the man’s mental distress after all of this. Everyone did, except the police officers. They continued to operate under the assumption the man was criminal and not deranged. How pitiful.

Then to make matters worse the officer is seen abusing the k9 who clearly not under his command or control.

It will be of much interest seeing how the police director and mayor respond to this assault by what in a long distant past used to be looked on as Trenton’s finest.

Every cell in our body is like a workshop full of machines. The machines are embedded in mitochondrial membranes – microscopic energy centers. They serve to synthesize ATP (adenosine triphosphate) – sort of a fuel for humans that our whole body uses in order to function properly.

There I was, the black grandson of a slave, the son of a black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the national anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.

“This is what sick and tired looks like”

On Friday there was a funeral march in Trenton. A march of mothers and father who have lost their sons senselessly by street crimes. Murders.

Rev Mark A. Broach, Pastor of the Trenton Deliverance Center, founded the Trenton Street Funeral organization. This organization brings together loved ones of those who are killed on our streets.

They are brought together to “give the family of victims a chance to express themselves”.

Rev Broach said, “ Trenton has had so many funerals that the community doesn’t get a chance to know what the families are going through. We’re giving them a chance to tell the community what they are going through.”

And tell they did. With a coffin, flowers, pallbearers, grieving mothers and a supportive community. About 200 people gathered at the Trenton War Memorial at five points. People who were saying “this is what sick and tired looks like”. (Go to www.thenubiannews.com for video of the funeral march.)

There are more than 180 unsolved murders in Trenton over the past 25 years. Trenton Street has approached Mayor Jackson with its concerns but it seems “his focus is off” on other things.

Next week Trenton Street Funeral will put their demand in writing to submit to the city council, the mayor and the county prosecutor’s office.

“We want to see change, we want to see things different. And the only way that we feel we can do that is if we go directly to the source. So we are going to be demanding change.”

There are times, like when watching footage of what happened in Charlottesville, Va., that racism bombards the senses like a virus, leaving your skin sore, your soul hardened and your spirit fatigued; a disillusioning, full-body wizening that disrupts, destroys and (occasionally) ends lives.

OF COURSE a black person can’t legally “defend himself” against a white man. Every brother in here knows that black people can’t legally use force against a white person, no matter how threatening and dangerous that white person may be. Every black person I know knows that if they have to defend themselves against any white person out there, they’d best be willing to catch a homicide/attempted homicide charge. We don’t get to “stand your ground.” We don’t get to have “self-defense.” We get to run, or die. If we fight back, we get the full weight of the legal system crashing down on our heads.

People talk about Trenton street violence, that ain’t nothing compared to the violence of police shooting a man down in the street for nothing and the entire weight of the ‘justice, legal system’ standing in support of him. This systemic violence against people of color worldwide is the fight of The Nubian News. We must replace the system of white supremacy/racism with a system of justice.

On the issue of racism, China seems to ask how America can preach to other countries about their human rights records when Black people are treated so badly. Racism persisted and race relations worsened in the U.S., the report concluded, citing a 2016 report to the United Nations Human Rights Council from the UN’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent that America’s racial problems are severe. “The colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the United States remained a serious challenge. Police killings were reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynching. The United States was undergoing a ‘human rights crisis,’” the Chinese report said.

China found that the U.S. State Department poses as “the judge of human rights,” wielding “the baton of human rights,” pointing fingers and blaming other countries for their own human rights issues, while ignoring its own “terrible” human rights problems.

Making its point, China pointed to the prevalence of gun violence in the U.S., including 58,125 gun-related incidents in 2016, including 385 mass shootings, 15,039 deaths and 30,589 injured. The report also pointed to America’s high rate of incarceration, with 693 prisoners per 100,000 — the second-highest rate in the world — and 2.2 million Americans imprisoned as of 2014. Citing the Harvard Law Review, the report said that 70 million Americans, or nearly one in three adults, have been incarcerated and have some form of criminal record.

The human rights report covers other troubling statistics. For example, one in seven Americans remain in poverty and average life expectancy fell from 78.9 years to 78.8 years, the first drop in life expectancy in over 20 years. Police abuse and deaths in custody are high, according to the report, and officers are rarely criminally charged for killing civilians. “About 1,000 civilians are killed by police each year, but only 77 officers have been charged with manslaughter or murder in connection with those deaths between 2005 and 2016,” the report said, citing statistics from The Washington Post.

Not one white person in this crowd would want to be treated the way Black people are treated in this country. They know how badly we are treated, they know and are all participants in that racist treatment. It ain’t ignorance we are fighting against, ‘they know”. Now we must come together and force them to stop. We will not accept it any longer.

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Loving the Black Perspective

My heart is so sad. I’m filled with disgust and some anger. Since I was a child I’ve asked myself “How can people be so cruel?” At one point I decided white people couldn’t be human. No other human acts so heinous.

Not one white person in this crowd would want to be treated the way Black people are treated in this country. They know how badly we are treated, they know and are all participants in that racist treatment. It ain’t ignorance we are fighting against, ‘they know”. Now we must come together and force them to stop. We will not accept it any longer.